A Designer of her Community, Meet Elise Robinson
Elise Robinson, AIA is Principal Designer at DLR Group/BGA, where her main sector of focus is K-12 projects. As a part of Bowie Gridley Architects (BGA, now part of DLR Group) for over 20 years, she’s had the opportunity to work on all aspects of designs for numerous independent schools. An innovative thinker, Elise views her job as a way to strengthen important relationships, and refers to her position as a “designer of the community.” Before she begins a new project, she speaks with the students and faculty within the school’s community, to gain a better understanding of how the new design can best fulfill everyone’s needs. Although Elise is used to being a minority in her field as a woman, this has never stopped her from excellence. Her mantra for success is to “power through and work harder.” Elise remains positive that things are moving in the right direction for women in design, partly due to the pandemic. Many opportunities were created for women because of the flexibility in work conditions that stemmed from the increase in hybrid work options. It was hard for Elise to find a female mentor in her field when she first started, so today she proudly mentors others in the industry. Elise is confident that through education, technology, and mentorship, the industry will become more innovative and welcoming for generations to come.
““If there’s an opportunity to do something culturally related, we try to understand that culture and have it show up in a celebratory way.”
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Featured project
Florencia Bialet
Co-Founder and CEO of Illustrate My Design (IMD).
Elise Robinson
Principal at DLG Group. She has led numerous building design and campus master planning projects for public, charter, and independent schools and universities. She has deep experience in the range of building types common to academic institutions: teaching spaces, libraries, science and arts, sports, and dormitories.